as in trick
an odd or peculiar habit
constantly playing with her hair is one of her more annoying tics
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Recent Examples of tic
Chris used to have a grim, distinctive tic of executing his enemies in the head; now, the climactic battle is just a spray of bullets.
—
Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2025
Her specific tics are not a universal symptom of the disorder.
—Zoey Lyttle, People.com, 24 Apr. 2025
Her role doesn’t ask for attention-getting tics, so O’Boyle centers the action by conveying practical reason in a no-nonsense, yet appealing manner.
—Christopher Smith, Orange County Register, 17 Mar. 2025
But none of us are going to notice because the hour spent on his speculative, facial tics.
—Zack Sharf, Variety, 5 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for tic
Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2025
Her specific tics are not a universal symptom of the disorder.
—Zoey Lyttle, People.com, 24 Apr. 2025
Her role doesn’t ask for attention-getting tics, so O’Boyle centers the action by conveying practical reason in a no-nonsense, yet appealing manner.
—Christopher Smith, Orange County Register, 17 Mar. 2025
But none of us are going to notice because the hour spent on his speculative, facial tics.
—Zack Sharf, Variety, 5 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for tic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tic
Noun
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However, there is a trick for using both of these operations together.—
Paul Smith-Goodson,
Forbes.com,
10 June 2025
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Thalberg was a wunderkind, and one of the tricks of being a wunderkind is to leverage a youthful aura—selling the Kind to increase the Wunder.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
9 June 2025
Noun
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The study found that, once again, this trait strongly predicted breadcrumbing, and was also associated with ghosting behaviors.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
10 June 2025
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Compared with the other dragons in the original, which character designer Nico Marlet imagined with comically lopsided proportions — bulgy eyes, oversize heads, ungainly fangs — Toothless was an elegant mix of feline and canine traits, mapped onto a sleek black reptilian body.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
9 June 2025
Noun
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Besides searching for the likes of methane and ammonia, the characteristics of the planet's atmosphere discernible to JWST could point to which formation model – core accretion or disk instability – is the correct one, or even whether a brand new formation model is needed.—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
4 June 2025
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Key characteristics of individuals with big egos in the workplace include: Domineering behavior.—
AllBusiness,
Forbes.com,
3 June 2025
Noun
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The result is an exciting mosaic not just of views and opinions, but also of mannerisms and personalities.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
3 June 2025
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While the veteran running back’s voice barely elevated above a public library level and his mannerisms remained reserved, the sincerity of his enthusiasm still landed.—
Dan Wiederer,
Chicago Tribune,
3 June 2025
Noun
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But the census does reveal some quirks: the tally of objects flattens out a bit as mass descends from the stellar regime to brown dwarfs but then starts rising again at lower, more planetary-scale masses.—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
12 June 2025
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Winning a spot on the Lake County Regional Board of School Trustees in 2023 with more than 43,000 votes, a quirk of state law prevented him from taking his seat.—
Steve Sadin,
Chicago Tribune,
22 May 2025
Noun
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That would let researchers simulate only the essential parts of the brain, and not all biological idiosyncrasies.—
Dobromir Rahnev,
The Conversation,
23 May 2025
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The action itself, with its piquant and poignant behavioral idiosyncrasies, teems with loose, whiplash-like ends and opaque but gleaming facets.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
28 Apr. 2025
Noun
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For comparison, Earth's orbit has an eccentricity of 0.0167 and is therefore close to circular; at the other extreme, an orbital eccentricity of 1 would be parabolic.—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
6 June 2025
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Class struggle is reflected in the way that the back-alley heavy, Atticus Hawk, dismisses the ivory-tower eccentricity of the occult specialist Scholar Vitali.—
The New York Times,
New York Times,
30 May 2025
Noun
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He is used to mowing his lawn shirtless and in shorts – especially on hotter days – but recently, what seemed like a harmless habit sparked unexpected drama with his neighbors across the street.—
Tereza Shkurtaj,
People.com,
7 June 2025
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Students leave with answers, but more importantly, with the habit of questioning their own choices and understanding the consequences.—
Dr. Aviva Legatt,
Forbes.com,
6 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Tic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tic. Accessed 18 Jun. 2025.
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